Summer turns into fall this weekend, which also means Theatre Week kicks off, welcoming a new season of stage productions to the D.C. area. Fall’s theater offerings include feel-good musicals, Shakespeare revisions, and scary stories just in time for Halloween. Contemporary dramas grace local stages alongside journeys into history, and at least one play tackles multiple time periods. Get ready to laugh, cry, and sing along to your favorite Beatles songs. Or Bob Dylan, if that’s more your thing. Mark your calendars for this handful of performances we’ve got on our radar.
The Brothers Paranormal
Halloween is just around the corner, and scary stories are creeping into the spotlight. DCist’s pick for your eerie theater fix is The Brothers Paranormal, a 2020 play written by Prince Gomolvilas. To capitalize on a nationwide increase of “Asian-looking ghost” sightings, two Thai-American brothers living in the Midwest set up a ghostbusting business. Their first customers are Delia and her husband Felix, a Black couple who relocated after Hurricane Katrina devastated their home. What transpires when the brothers begin to investigate the apparition is an inquiry into identity that will have you shivering in fear. (Olney Theatre Center; Sept. 27-Oct. 29; $50-$85)
Anacostia Playhouse’s Art All Night
Art All Night, an annual event presented by the Mayor’s office, offers a lot to choose from, with neighborhood BIDs bringing artsy happenings to all eight wards. Our choice? Head to Anacostia Playhouse, where local playwrights will be bringing their work to the stage. Get a first look at Life Isn’t Fair by Sanjit Sengupta, which follows a writer from New York to D.C. as he works on his next horror novel (7 p.m. on Sept. 29). Celeste A. Frazier’s A Dream Deferred begins when a racist white man walks into a Black-owned restaurant (8 p.m. on Sept. 30). Radiator by Craig Houk follows two men who live across the hall from each other, and begin sparring over a hissy radiator (10:30 p.m. on Sept. 29 and 30). Plus, Theater Alliance offers playwriting tips at 7 p.m. on Sept. 30. (Anacostia Playhouse; Sept. 29-30; FREE)
Mrs. Doubtfire
Your favorite feel-good divorce comedy is coming to a stage near you. Mrs. Doubtfire, a musical-comedy adapted from the 1993 movie, is paying the National a visit this October. Rob McClure will reprise his Tony-nominated role as Daniel Hillard, who creates an alter ego as a Scottish nanny, Euphegenia Doubtfire, in a desperate attempt to stay in the lives of his children following a messy divorce. Accompanying McClure onstage is Maggie Lakis, his real-life wife, who plays Miranda Hillard. Along with Mrs. Doubtfire, the National’s fall offerings include a musical adaptation of Pretty Woman and The Wiz — which we would be recommending if it hadn’t already sold out. (The National Theatre; Oct. 10-15; $69-$154)
The Mountaintop
On the evening before his tragic assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. is visited by a mysterious and alluring maid, Camae, in his Memphis motel room. So begins The Mountaintop, a 2009 historical reimagining by Katori Hall that won a prestigious Laurence Olivier award for Best New Play, making Hall the first Black woman to win the prize. King’s rapport with Camae is flirtatious at first, but as The Mountaintop unfolds, their conversation moves into the existential territory of life, death, faith and legacy. Catch the bold portrait of a crucial Civil Rights leader this October at Round House Theatre, under the direction of Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. (Round House Theatre; Oct. 11-Nov. 5; $46-$83)
“Evita” starring Shireen Pimentel is at the Kennedy Center until Oct. 15.[/caption]
POTUS
Looking for a laugh? Look no further than POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, a Broadway hit by Selina Fillinger that comes to Arena Stage this fall. Despite the play’s title, the president in POTUS is neither seen nor named. Instead, the spotlight falls on seven women from dramatically different backgrounds who scramble to save his reputation after he calls his wife a, erm, see you next Tuesday. The zany cast of characters include the president’s press secretary, his chief of staff, his sister and the first lady herself. Catch the play that will have you laughing “until your face hurts,” according to an Entertainment Weekly critic, starting in October. (Arena Stage; Oct. 13-Nov. 12; $56-$72)
Ragtime
What do Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, J. P. Morgan and Booker T. Washington have in common? For one, they all make an appearance in Ragtime, the 1996 musical with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Ragtime tells the story of three American families: a Harlem-based Black family, a white upper-class family living in New York’s Westchester County, and a Jewish family who emigrated from Latvia. With an energetic soundtrack that weaves together the era’s musical styles, Ragtime paints a broad portrait of the American experience. (Signature Theatre; Oct. 24-Jan. 7; $40-$97)
Fat Ham
Yes, the title Fat Ham refers to the fact that James Ijames’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play takes place at a backyard barbecue. But it’s also a nod to the title of another play: Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which is the blueprint for Ijames’s modern gloss. Juicy is a queer Black kid living in North Carolina when his father’s ghost shows up with a little request: Can Juicy kill Rev, his father’s brother, to avenge his father’s death? Fat Ham “[asks] the same questions” as Hamlet, according to a New York Times critic, but “[comes] up with different answers.” Dig into the meaty Fat Ham, under the direction of Taylor Reynolds, at Studio Theatre this fall. (Studio Theatre; Oct. 25-Dec.4; $35-$90)
Confederates
Sandra and Sara, the two protagonists of acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau’s Confederates, live in very different worlds. Sandra is a tenured political science professor at a modern-day university, while Sara is an enslaved woman turned Union spy during the Civil War. Rapidly switching between these two vastly different stories and historical moments, Confederates begins to unearth their parallels, telling a gripping story of racism in America over the years. Mosaic Theater brings Confederates to the Atlas Performing Arts Center starting next month. (Atlas Performing Arts Center; Oct 26-Nov. 19; $42-$70)
Public Obscenities
This fall, travel to a rundown second-story apartment in Kolkata, India with nothing more than a theater ticket. Public Obscenities, an off-Broadway hit written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, tells the story of Choton, a Ph.D. student visiting family and conducting academic research on Kolkata’s queer community. He’s brought Raheem, his Black American photographer boyfriend, with him. When Raheem discovers an undeveloped roll of film in a camera that once belonged to Choton’s grandfather, the stories and legacies of Choton’s family begin to unravel. Unfolding in both English and Bangla, Public Obscenities comes to Woolly Mammoth under the direction of Chowdhury himself. (Woolly Mammoth Theatre; Nov. 13-Dec. 23; $34-$46)
As You Like It
Shakespeare gets a ‘60s remix in Daryl Cloran’s musical spin on As You Like It, which comes to Shakespeare Theatre Company this December. Conceived by Daryl Cloran and Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, a Vancouver-based theater company, this colorful adaptation sets the romantic classic to the tune of The Beatles. Featuring two dozen of the band’s greatest hits, from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Helter Skelter,” Cloran’s As You Like It breathes a little peace and love into Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy. (Shakespeare Theatre Company; Dec. 2-31; $54-$119)
Girl From the North Country
Even if you’ve never seen Girl From the North Country, a Tony Award-winning musical with a book by Conor McPherson, you might know the words to the songs — they’re all by Bob Dylan. Set in Duluth, Minnesota (a nod to Dylan’s hometown) in 1934, Girl From the North Country is a portrait of families buckling under the pressure of the Great Depression. The large cast of characters includes folks of all ages contending with alcoholism, addiction, pregnancy, dementia and despair. Dive into their worlds, and sing along to tunes like “Slow Train Coming” and “Like a Rolling Stone” this December at the Kennedy Center. (Kennedy Center; Dec. 12-31; $49-$139)
MORE: My Mama & the Full-Scale Invasion (Woolly Mammoth Theatre; through Oct. 8; $5-$83), Evita (Shakespeare Theatre Company; through Oct. 15; $95-$225), Espejos: Clean (Studio Theatre; through Oct. 22; $60-$75), King of the Yees (Signature Theatre; Sept. 12-Oct. 22; $40-$90), Something Moving: A Meditation on Maynard (Ford’s Theatre; Sept. 22-Oct. 15; $31-$53), ExPats Theatre: Scorched (Atlas Performing Arts Center; Sept. 23-Oct. 15; $45), The Tell-Tale Heart (Synetic Theater; Sept. 29-Nov. 5; $35-$65), The Laramie Project (George Washington University Student Center; Oct 5-8; $20), The Team Room (Keegan Theatre; Oct. 7-28; $65), Macbeth In Stride (Shakespeare Theatre Company; Oct. 10-29; $35-$129), The Chameleon (Theater J; Oct. 11-Nov. 5; $69.99), Look Both Ways (Kennedy Center; Oct. 14-29; $20), Picasso (GALA Hispanic Theatre; Oct. 14-21; $12), Monstress (Silver Spring Black Box Theatre; Oct. 19-28; $10-$25), The Wiz (The National Theatre; Oct. 24-29; sold out), Agreste (Drylands) (Spooky Action Theater; Oct. 26-Nov. 19; $30-$40), Solas Nua: The Honey Trap (Atlas Performing Arts Center; Nov. 2-19; $45), The Winter’s Tale (Folger Theatre; Nov. 4-Dec. 17; $25), Fiddler on the Roof (Olney Theatre Center; Nov. 8-Dec. 31; $35-$101), Arms and the Man (Washington Stage Guild; Nov. 16-Dec. 10; $50-$60), Swept Away (Arena Stage; Nov. 25-Dec. 30; $76-$92), Pretty Woman: The Musical (The National Theatre; Dec. 12-17; $69-$129)
